Thu, Jun 21, 2018 page11

• Banking by smart speaker arrives amid security fears

  FINANCIAL FRAUD: Cybercriminals might record and replay a user’s voice to a smart speaker to gain access to their bank accounts, a Kaspersky Lab researcher said

  • AP, NEW YORK
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  Hey Alexa, what is my bank account balance?

  Big banks and financial companies have started to offer banking through virtual assistants — Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa, Apple Inc’s Siri and Google’s Assistant — in a way that would allow customers to check their balances, pay bills and, in the near future, send money just with their voice.

  With the rapid adoption of Zelle, a bank-to-bank transfer system, it soon could be possible to send money to friends or family instantly with voice commands.

  However, the potential to do such sensitive tasks through a smart speaker raises security concerns.

  Virtual assistants and smart speakers are still relatively new technologies, and potentially susceptible to being exploited by cybercriminals.

  Regional banking giant US Bank is the first bank to be on all three services.

  The company did a soft launch of its Siri and Assistant services in early March and this month started marketing the option to customers.

  Other financial companies have set up virtual assistant features.

  Credit card companies Capital One Financial Corp and American Express Co both have Alexa skills that allow customers to check their balances and pay bills.

  There are other smaller banks and credit unions that have set up Google Assistant or Alexa as well.

  “We want to be there for our customers in any possible way that we can,” US Bank executive vice president for omnichannel banking Gareth Gaston said.

  For now, US Bank is keeping the features available through bank-by-voice fairly restrictive.

  Customers would be able to check bank balances, pay US Bank credit cards and mortgages, ask Alexa or Google the due dates on bills and other basic functions.

  Money cannot be transferred from a US Bank account using voice yet, but the bank is considering the option, Gaston said.

  Asking Google, Alexa or Siri for the weather or to tell a joke is one thing, but it is a whole other issue when these assistants access and share sensitive personal information.

  The devices would typically announce a person’s available balance over the speaker, which has the potential to create awkward situations at parties.

  In the case of Google and Alexa, users must create a secure connection between their bank and the assistant through Alexa’s Skills or Google’s Actions.

  All banks require the use of a four-digit PIN before they will provide balance and bank account information over these speakers, and suggest making those PINs different from the one on a customer’s automatic teller machine card.

  Siri is the most restrictive of the three virtual assistants, only showing a user a bank account balance on a screen, and not allowing other features such as paying bills.

  Banks can integrate Siri into their iPhone and iPad apps, but Apple’s HomePod smart speaker that launched earlier this year does not accept banking commands.

  A company spokeswoman declined to say whether that feature was coming.

  Google Assistant has the capability to do individual voice recognition, providing one additional level of security on that platform, but that is not implemented on US Bank’s Action yet.

  However, security experts have said that the additional level of security could be foiled.

  “Users’ voices can be recorded, manipulated and replayed to the assistants,” Kaspersky Lab security researcher Kurt Baumgartner said.

  “Also, with access to banking accounts and abilities to transfer and pay out money, remote financial fraud may be within the reach of cybercriminal groups soon,” he added.
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